When I approach a link building campaign, I generally incorporate the following strategies:
* Choose an affinity – what type of sites do I want to contact for a link?
* Compile a list of sites and contact information using Google
* Send out emails
* Follow up [I am hardcore about this – after 2 days, if I haven’t gotten a reply, you can be I’m sending a follow up email. It may drive some people crazy, but it works for me. I swear by the follow up!]

I am a HUGE fan of The Celebrity Apprentice on NBC. I don’t watch a lot of television, but this is a show that I cannot – and will not – miss. It’s exciting, suspenseful, and highly entertaining. The more I watch, the more I begin to make connections between the show and SEO. I thought it might be fun to share a handful of “lessons” that I think all in the SEO industry can learn from The Celebrity Apprentice.

I'm relatively new to SEO. I started about 10 months ago, with no knowledge of search engine marketing at all.
The week before I started my internship, a co-worker emailed me a "Basics of SEO" PDF and told me to read up. I did, and I even took notes. (Sidenote: I didn't actually read the entire thing. But don't tell.)

I touched on this in a YOUmoz post a couple of years ago, but obviously you've taken it to another, actionable level. I like to use Twitter just like a traditional search engine and it's served me well throughout my SEO career.

This was a great refresher on local SEO. I'd been out of the game for a couple of years and :smacks head: I totally forgot about the impact of local search. Thanks for the friendly reminder - and for making me look good at work, Rand! Congrats on the acquisition.

Another reason is google wants to think thay your industry is some what stable and if everyone on the front page is linked to by the same guys but your not... you must not be a good source in that industry.

I agree but ONLY when it comes to what Google might consider an "authority" site - i.e. if you're on the front page of results for "breast cancer" and your competitors are all featured on the Mayo Clinic website, but you're not, then they may think "Ooo, website X is not necessarily as valuable as website Y and Z."

I think that Google's algorithim is sophisticated enough to determine whether or not it is "good" to be linked to on a site that also happens to feature a handful of your competitors.

I found this blog post recently: http://seogroup.com/blog/9-google-approved-directories-so-start-submitting/992/...I submitted our site to Jayde and a couple of others. Previously I was of the same mindset as you regarding directory links. October 20, 2009

There's a lot of buzz about whether or not it is a bad idea to post external links on your website, Wedding. My feeling is that linking to certain external sites with authoritative qualities [i.e. a .gov website or a .edu that is topically relevant to my website] may actually give MY site a boost in PR, mozTrust, etc. Of course, I go back and forth on this issue, but for the most part, I no longer see a need to nofollow all external links - there's value in building a relationship with authoritative sites in my niche. September 10, 2009

Wefeed our daily news articles through Twitter, so we ARE offering something of value...and I use the tweets that those I follow as a source for news articles, press releases, etc. A relationship on Twitter at its most basic - just following one another - is extremely valuable.

But getting a link from a site that I found on Twitter makes the relationship a little bit sweeter.

Using Twitter as a source for good, link-worthy websites is far from useless. It's another way for businesses to expand their relationships. You can't argue with that.

I disagree with your assertion that a site found on Twitter is not worthy of a link. These sites are accessible elsewhere, obviously, and when I did a search for a particular keyword in Google this morning, I actually came across one of the sites I had found on Twitter!

I just don't think your comment makes much sense - - sites like NIOSH, for example, and the example I used in this post (Roberto Cavalli's site) pop up in search results for certain keywords that I'd consider to be fairly common - i.e. NIOSH is 4 for "occupational safety.'

webwordslinger.com, the sites I found were all excellent sites, some I would even consider "authority" sites. It depends on what you are searching for, in my opinion. When looking at these sites, I checked out the site in general, did a Whois check, took a look at the site backlinks, etc. So, I'm pretty picky and go through a bit of a process before determining that ANY site is a "good site."

I protect my updates and much like approving a new Facebook friend, I can approve or decline any Twitter account that requests to follow my updates, so I'm "in control" of who I am interacting with.

I agree - I see opportunity also. I think what you're doing in your community is so awesome...way to go! I think you are a fine example of what being an SEO really means: being engaged, learning new things, expanding your knowledge base, etc.

For me, becoming an SEO takes a lot of time, and a lot of research, and a lot of trial and error. I have only been in this industry for a year and a month now, and I wouldn't go as far to call myself an SEO just yet. I'm an "emerging SEO" ha.

I like it. I wonder if you could look at the frequency of the author following up in the comments. It seems like the posts that have an interactive author resonding to comments in a timely fashion are received better. As days go by without an author response, those posts tend to get thumbed down more.

I agree with Bob; when I write a YOUmoz post I always keep track of comments and answer any questions or provide additional information as needed. I think it is important to do so - yet I recognize that when an individual receives negative feedback about their post from the get-go, including harsh comments and thumbs down, that the author may avoid following-up. I would follow up, anyway, and respectfully disagree or defend my position, but to each her own.

The graphs were a little overwhelming for me, seeing as it is only 9:50 on the east coast and I am not finished with my first latte yet, but I'm amazed that you put them together - so cool.

I utilized images in my last post [How to Utilize Twitter in a Link Building Campaign] because I thought it would help drive my point home. As an aside, I was so worried that my post would be recieved poorly, as it seemd to me - at the time - almost "too elementary" to post here, and I didn't want to offend people by posting something that, to me, seemed self-explanatory - but it was well-received and I think the images helped immensely. Now, on to creating charts/graphs.

I agree with break - this seems like a lot of work with no real gain. Our competitors see our site and as long as we stay one step ahead of them, are clever, and continue to outperform them, we could care less.

Break's right; you're never really "hidden" from anyone on the Internet.

Yep, I noticed (and reported) that Linkscape was acting up, and my toolbar has been acting funny as well. Something with the server? Frustrating, but I appreciated the email reply from your site support team explaining the situation. June 01, 2009

Even if search engines give less credibility and/or power to social media sites, I believe so many individuals and companies have social media sites they will use them to cross reference other individuals/companies for years to come, if not forever.

I agree; sites like Twitter and Facebook are about making connections, and with the right connections comes growth and expansion. These outlets are crucial to growing a business, especially in this economy.

I loved this. Your posts consistently crack me up, as do your Tweets. At the risk of sounding like a total cheeseball, I think you're an inspiration to other ladies in the male-dominated SEO industry. Cue the music! May 22, 2009

I agree...I usually try to find an answer on my own, but knowing there is a wealth of knowledge available from the SEOmoz community INVITES question-asking. If I can get a bunch of different answers, from really smart people, why NOT ask?

I agree; funny seems to work when it comes to promoting products. Of course, there are exceptions, but everyone loves a humorous product promo spot.

I noticed today on Facebook that Mars candy is really pimping their "Free Chocolate Friday" campaign by offering free gifts (pictures of Twix bars, M&Ms, etc) that you can send to your friends. The recipient also receives credits to be used towards purchasing additional Facebook gifts.

McDonalds is doing the same thing - they have a background ad on TMZ and a free McLatte gift on Facebook.

'I've personally always tried to operate under the 'only say things online I would say to my grandmother'.

This cracked me up. And it's a good rule of thumb! :-)

All of my co-workers (and bosses) are on Facebook, and we all Tweet. However, I am discreet about what pictures, etc. I post. This is just something I would be careful about no matter what, because I want to present myself in a certain way.

Creating a Google Profile is a good way to manage your online rep - I just created one, and am in the process of verifying my name. So, if people search for me via Google, they can view a profile that I created that has only the information that I want to share.

When I was job-hunting, I deleted my Facebook account - I know that fellow co-workers did not, and our boss saw their profile before hiring them, but I didn't feel like I was presenting myself as a professional unless I got rid of Facebook (temporarily).

I think that utilizing social media (I'm thinking Twitter) can be an effective way to generate traffic to your website, BUT I think you have to be very careful about how you use it and craft the language in your "Tweets" very carefully as well.

As far as the FTC regulating promotion of products on social media sites - how would they REALLY know the affiliations of a particular person? Say I provide a guest blog post about product X. I could work for the company that manufactures/markets product X, but no one would ever know unless I explicitly stated it in my blog post or signature. Or, I could just be a consumer who loves product X and also happens to blog - unless I was explicit, again, how can the FTC or equivalent organizations actually regulate this?

When it comes to comment spam (linking to your website in your blog comment) it isn't too hard to tell who is spamming and who isn't. I don't practice comment spam - decreases my credibility, in my opinion. And most comment spam is nofollowed anyway...but it still makes you look like a stinky spammer.

What needs to be done on the site? (e.g., link building, site cleanup, increased content, etc)

I think a site audit should be done frequently to ensure that you're not missing anything, you know? I tend to go back and try to optimize certain links every few months, and of course there's content audits - what do we NEED to add that we haven't already? In a way, I do a site audit daily - if I find new content that should go up on the site for example.

Good post - saw that Rebecca alerted you via Twitter when it went up. How convenient ha!

I get spam emails - like the examples mentioned in this post - EVERY DAY. They go directly to my junk email. I don't read them. In general, 95% of these emails are from foreign countries, and are written in a way that SCREAMS "SPAMMER!"

I've utilized foreign writers from ODesk before, too. I've not been happy with any of them. That's not to say I wouldn't use a foreign writer in the future - if I liked their writing samples, and they communicated effectively, and the price was right, I'd hire them.

I tend to think that these emails - foreign SEO companies trying to get my business - are created with the intent of spamming people. I received a voicemail from a company that claims they are the "number one SEO company on Google" [they aren't...in fact, I went through 100 results and did not find their site listed at ALL before giving up] and simply deleted it. It's spam! That's all.

That being said - it certainly is not fair to make generalizations about foreign companies who may send out spam-like emails or leave spammy voicemails. It JUST SO HAPPENS that the majority of the companies/individuals who send out emails like the emails mentioned in this post are from foreign countries - at least in MY experience.

Hey, they're effective to SOME degree - they piss us off and start rousing conversations on SEOmoz!

As I begin to dig deeper into this issue, I begin researching where these links are coming from and where they are pointing to. As I look through all of these links, I notice that every single link cleanly links to www.healthplanone.com. Just as planned.

This leads me to believe that you are not keeping track of/checking your inbound links - is that the case? I wouldn't wait until something went wrong (drop in ranks, for example) to go through my links!

I agree; it is often frustrating to see a competitor outranking us when we are playing by the rules and doing everything by the book. This is when we get together in the conference room and strategize and try to come up with a new idea - something that our competitor has yet to do, so that we can potentially gain on them and eventually, outrank them. And we always do - even though it is typically a rankings rollercoaster, and things change every few months.

There's a lot of sense in what you're suggesting - the BBC is an authority site, with a PR of 9, and it is clearly a reputable and trustworthy source of information in general.

This is one of those instances where you scratch your head and wonder why Google does certain things the way that they do!

On the other hand, www.formula1.com is a PR 7 and is (I'd assume :-P) working hard to rank for the keyword you searched for. So, if they're doing a great job of optimizing their site, then they deserve to be where they're at (and of course, the strength of their domain name doesn't hurt).

Ha, perfect example of comment spam above me. Does someone delete these kinds of comments? I don't think I have ever seen one on an SEOmoz blog post before.

As far as competitor sites trying to throw you under the bus - - a lot of SEOs track competitor backlinks and try to get a link on those pages in an effort to "steal" some of their link juice. So, if you're in competition with certain sites, you can bet they're checking up on what you are doing, especially in terms of building links.

It's definitely part of the SEO. If you are not recommending content changes and additions, then you are not doing a job as an SEO consultant. Although day-to-day duties vary by team member at each company, its definitely part of SEO for a client.

It always bugs me when I hear this kind of thing - ever heard of the concept of "link bait," Darren? In my experience, solid content yields solid links. You can't expect an authoritative website with high PR to link to your site if it has useless, crappy content. Granted, in some instances, good content is not required for a good link - but I agree; updating/adding content is a daily part of SEO. If you don't practice this, I'd say that you're doing your client a disservice.

An "Edible Arrangements" delivery from Google pre-penalty would be lovely. Too bad Google loves being mysterious.

Dana, good point: If you have a million dollars worth of websites you have the ability to make a ton of money if you play your cards right. The advertising dollars you could make off of those sites is phenomenal.

Would a great website that has stood the test of time NOT be considered an investment, audiore?

An "investment" is defined as "the commitment of something other than money (time, energy, or effort) to a project with the expectation of some worthwhile result; "this job calls for the investment of some hard thinking"; "he made an emotional investment in the work" - this is one of many definitions, obviously, but I liked this one.

Consider a for-profit website that has been around for many years (overstock.com, for example, or barnesandnoble.com). They obviously put a LOT of capital into their websites with the hope that they would generate increased sales, exposure, etc. Putting thousands into a website - at first - can be daunting, as it often takes several tries/redesigns/changes/ before a company has a website that accomplishes all of their goals. Fast forward, and you have an extremely popular website with clever commercials (overstock.com - it's "all about the O ha") and a website that gives consumers an alternative purchasing option (online vs. in-store PLUS order online, pick up in store or have it shipped) and has also increased company profits barnesandnoble.com). For these and other similar companies, their website was a worthwhile investment. And, in the future, I'd be willing to bet that some companies will transition from retail stores to exclusive online sales.

Maybe that was poorly explained, but you probably get the idea.

Now, which would I rather have? I'd rather have one million dollars worth of websites that generated 3x that amount in profit, so that I could own a lot of real estate.

In general I agree but you should be careful with sudden sitewide changes in the way you link (whether the links are nofollowed, their anchor textes etc.) because Google might find it manipulative.

Sorry if I steer away from the topic - but we were just having a discussion about "sudden sitewide changes" and how these may impact a website's ranking in Google. Some say that any sudden, "bulk" change - for example, getting an influx of high PR links in a very short period of time - may raise a red flag to Google. I am on the fence as to whether or not I believe this assertion to be true, but I see the validity and would like to investigate further.

As a rule, I believe that nofollow should be used moderately. I also follow the SEOmoz thinking that it is beneficial to link to authority sites - as in, an outbound "dofollow" link. Having worked on two sites - one that nofollows outbound links to authority sites, one that has some nofollow links and some dofollow links to authority sites - I have to report that I've not seen negative impact from "dofollowing" some of said links.

Nofollowing a contact page doesn't make sense to me at all. I wouldn't do it...Gunneweg and others are right; for certain SEO purposes, and with local search in mind, why WOULD you nofollow your contact page?!

I'd say that quite a few webmasters utilize nofollow specifically for manipulative purposes. This, to me, is spammy.

When used correctly - in moderation, and with discretion - I think nofollow makes total sense. However, I agree with rishil nofollow is spammy if and when it is used to "artifically" boost the value of your pages.

Absolutely. I do think links within forum comments should automatically be nofollowed.

Reminds me of comment spam - so many people leave comments and link their name to their website and if a site does not automatically nofollow links in comments, these links will cache - I see comment spam links in Yahoo! Site Explorer all of the time. Drives me nuts!

Thanks Rishil - yes, there are many reasons why I might nofollow a link. I've said before, though, that I do not ALWAYS nofollow outbound links - linking out to an authority site, for example, is very helpful in establishing credibility for my site.

I agree; only linking to "authority sites" that will lend credibility to your own site is my tendency. And sometimes, I do not nofollow these links...it depends.

I am not in the habit of reciprocating links. If I do, it's because it's a dealbreaker if I refuse...and then I generally nofollow the link. I've found that, in many cases (I won't say MOST to avoid making generalizations and offending someone!) people who demand reciprocal links are not very SEO-savvy.

You're right; only linking to a site because it has high PR is not always the best idea. I take into account more than just PR when asking for a link on a site.

What is the differentiating factor between natural links and paid links? Or how could you detect paid links? No way at all

I disagree - it's pretty easy to spot a paid link. Even if a paid link is placed away from any language that suggests that it was paid for ("Sponsors" or "Advertisments" or "Partners," etc) it is often fairly easy to spot paid links. If you're trying to stay in Google's good graces, paying for links involves a lot of clever wording so that your paid link appears natural.

I feel like - maybe - some people have a feeling of superiority and tend to look down a bit on the newbies.

I also think this idea of "be careful not to disrespect the community!" and "mind your elders and those with the most MOZ points!" has gotten a bit out of control..

I respect everyone here - I've said in previous comments and in my YOUmoz post that I've learned more here at SEOmoz than anywhere else. I find everyone here to be knowledgeable and, generally speaking, tactful, and I appreciate that. I've received great feedback - it was all constructive, even if it was not what I wanted to hear or what I had hoped for.

In reference to the post that was taken down at the author's request, I think said author had a right to become defensive after some of the comments he received. I don't necessarily think that he handled it appropriately (retaliating only fuels the fire) but still, I feel like everyone should have cut him some slack.

I think that - as long as you're respectful, you'll have no problem here. You can agree to disagree, but I don't necessarily see the point in writing a post like this, which is essentially setting "ground rules" for those who are thinking about posting or commenting for the first time. Maybe lurking for a week or two is beneficial, but you shouldn't suggest that newbies "mimic" the comments and posts by more established members of the community...if you have something to share, share it, but be respectful and be open to constructive feedback. If you're too worried about what the "elders" may say, then you may never learn anything!

To be frank, Peter, I'm not sure that I like you very much, but hey - I'm learning from you, and that's my bottom line. It takes all kinds, you know?

I just don't want newbies to become discouraged after reading a post like this. Your first post can be "good" and not necessarily "AWESOME!" But you'll never get from "good" to "AWESOME!" by not posting at all, you know?

I am not big on thumbs down - I'd rather leave a comment on posts that I did not like or did not agree with so that the author could receive some constructive criticism. Same goes for the thumbs up - I'm more inclined to give someone a thumbs up, but I prefer to comment. March 12, 2009

I think that the staff is quite successful at "only allowing awesome stuff" to be posted here, but what I think we all need to remember is that we can't discourage potential first-time posters with statements like "you can only be added if you submit more than three awesome posts." If someone writes ONE awesome post, it should end up on YOUmoz! What's the point in waiting to review two additional posts to ensure that they are consistently awesome? If they wrote one great post, they'll probably be able to do it again...

Before I read your post, I was looking at my Moz Points (55) and my ranking (350) and wondering what influenced them. Very cool!

I listen to a lot of talk radio, and one of the local AM guys in my area was talking about incentives the other night - he visited a class of students at Syracuse University and gave a lecture, and afterwards, the professor told the class that they would recieve an incentive if they listened to this guy's broadcast that evening and called in to comment. Had he not given an incentive, the professor predicted that 1 student would call. With the incentive, he thought that as many as 15 would call. 2 called - so, the professor was right. Incentives work.

Ideally, people would comment on blog posts here because they had questions, or thoughts, without the allure of an incentives...but Fabio is right...I bet more people would comment if they had some kind of additional motivation.

As a recent first-time YOUmoz poster...I'm surprised that only 4.8% have submitted and posted. That's disappointing to me!

Ok, here's an analogy for the importance of link building. It might suck. I warned you.

You open your own coffee shop. You have a really great location, a really cool storefront with cafe tables outside, state-of-the-art appliances, friendly staff, etc.

You've spent a LOT of money - but you forgot to advertise! You never sent out fliers to local businesses, telling them to come in for your grand opening. You never networked, you didn't take an ad out in the paper with a coupon for a free cup of coffee to people who work on the street where you're located..etc. So you have this great coffee shop, with delicious coffee, but you're not going to be as successful as you could have been had you done that crucial networking/advertising etc.

It's (kind of) like having a website but never building links. You have an excellent site, great content, etc. but if you fail to build quality links from quality sites (with high PR!) your website will not be successful.

0lly, you're right; but the many blogs and SEO websites are a great place to start - the topics there can, at the very least, get you thinking, and once you start thinking, you are bound to come up with ideas of your own, or better ways to make something work for you.

I think what I like the most about SEO is that I know I'll still be learning new things 10 years from now...and that's such a great thing! I wouldn't last in a job that never changed...can't do the same thing all day, every day.

I've found great writers - some who do bulk projects for me twice a year, some who submit content daily - on Odesk.

While we're on the subject of outsourcing - I think the next place I'll post content jobs will be Craigslist. If you can find roommates and one night stands on Craigslist, I can probably find a decent writer who will work for cheap, right? :-P

Lots of content-focused discussion on YOUmoz lately...you can outsource 1,000 pages, insert some interlinks and throw 'em up on your site for SEO purposes but for your website visitors/customers/clients...if the content sucks, was it really worth the $$ you paid?

Content, in my humble opinion, is extremely important for SEO in a variety of ways, but in the most basic way, your content has to be a) well-written and grammatically correct and b) factual and useful to those who will be visiting your site and actually reading it!! Of course, it is also good link bait. Or, it can be, if it doesn't suck.

I know a thing or two about apartments - the walls are always too thin, but if you're heat is provided in the rent, it's nice to be able to open up the windows during the winter with the heat blasting and not have to suffer the consequences when the heating bill arrives!!

...but beware of submitting tons of the same article over and over to sites in the hope of getting more links. The value passed is not high (at least, from 99% of these sites) and you do lose the value of having great content on your own site (and earning the search traffic and links that might have flowed to it naturally).

I would say that 75% of the links I am building are embedded in relevant content, written by myself (sometimes outsourced). The idea behind that is that - eventually - a newly-created page that contains our content and a couple of links will gain PR, and it will be far more valuable than a floating keyword on a homepage with no relevant content.

As a rule, we do not send out duplicate content. Not smart! Every article we send out is different, to avoid dup content issues down the road.

This is a great reference - I'm going to print it too.

As far as reciprocal linking - what about a "resources" page with outbound links that are nofollowed? If you're not in the habit of reciprocal linking, and do it only in a "make-or-break" situation, a page with a few nofollowed reciprocal links seems ok to me.

previously I was hesitant to link out only because my colleagues - who have been in SEO for longer than I have - expressed their hesitation and lived by the "nofollow all outbound links!" rule.

Now that I've taken on a side project and am maintaining a website on my own - where I ultimately make the decisions - I'm starting to link out to other sites. I have yet to establish PR on that site, but this will be an interesting "experiment" of sorts.

The argument that outbound links to "authority" sites, news sites, etc. will help your site establish credibility makes a lot of sense to me. Linking to cancer.gov from a site you've developed that is focused on alternative cancer treatments, for example, lends a sense of reliability to your site.

As a rule, if we link to a website with higher PR (meaning higher in general and higher than the page on our website where the outbond link appears) we nofollow the link.

I am on the fence as to whether or not the nofollow is necessary, but it's what we've always done. I've seen competitors link to authority sites with high PR and not nofollow the link with no apparent consequences.

1. I've been working in the SEO industry for almost one year, and I LOVE IT. I love the challenge. Every day I learn something new.

2. I spend hours on SEOmoz learning about new tools every day. I subsribe to the blog RSS feed and read it religiously. I follow some of the bloggers on Twitter (but not at work. Ok, maybe at work. Sometimes). I have the SEOmoz toolbar (which I love). Etc.

3. As an SEO, I have the opportunity to be as great or as useless as I want to be. Becoming a great SEO involves a lot of time, a lot of reading, a lot of asking, a lot of work, not much sleep, and a lot of coffee.

4. Countless hours spent on SEOmoz lead to poor vision and the onset of carpel tunnel. I have to pay for new bifocals and wrist braces, so I can't afford a Pro membership. Seriously.

I'd love to progress in this industry and I need the right tools to do so. Pick me, pick me!